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What is a Bleed?

Bleed is a printing term that refers to printing that goes beyond the edge of the sheet after trimming. In other words, the bleed is the area to be trimmed off.

The bleed is the part on the side of a document that gives the printer a small amount of space to account for movement of the paper, and design inconsistencies. Artwork and background colors can extend into the bleed area and after trimming, the bleed ensures that no white edges occur in the final trimmed document.

How Do I Correctly Set-Up A Bleed?

Bleeds must extend past the cut-line and will be trimmed from the product during the final cutting phase. When the image is required to extend all the way to the edge (like all around our sample above), the bleed is needed to preserve the finished look and the quality of the final product. Use the above visualization to help you set up your final design correctly.

SAFETY LINE: This is the margin for your layout. Anything outside the safety line would be in danger of being cut off during the final production process. Please keep all text and anything that you don’t want cut off within the safety line. Minimum safety line is at least 0.25” inside the cut-line. (For business cards, the safety line is 0.125”)

CUT LINE: This is edge of the final product where it will be cut.

BLEED: This is the area past the cut line in which any image that runs to the edge of the layout needs to be extended to. The bleed for all products is 0.125”.

CROP MARKS: These are the marks which show where the cut lines are. Crop marks are outside the cut area so that they do not show on the final product. The standard offset for crop marks is 6 pt (0.083”). Please only use crop marks. Registration marks, color bars, page information or any other are marks are not needed.